Are we on the brink of an identity revolution?

What I learned at the 12th European Identity & Cloud Conference 2018

By Mike Brown, Director, ATB Innovation

This question, among others, was a leading topic at the 12th European Identity & Cloud Conference in Munich, Germany in May. Bringing together a mix of both new and traditional companies across the industries of identity and access management, the conference put a lens on modern challenges and solutions in this new world ushered in by the fourth industrial revolution.

Spanning four very full days of lectures, panels and events, the conference dealt with a large variety of future-focused topics, from blockchain to the predicted implications of the pending General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) act in the European Union. This change in legislation, which came into effect one week after the conference, was expected to have wide sweeping impacts on consumer data and their identity relationships with various organizations within the EU and abroad. While its ultimate impact is still largely unknown, it is perceived to be ‘righting the ship’ regarding the balance between consumers and corporations.

Canada was well-represented at the conference, with TD Bank, BC Government, DIACC and ATB Financial contributing actively to conversations around like identity trust frameworks, blockchain-based federated identity solutions and self-sovereign identity. One comment overheard during a coffee break was how Canada “sure is leading with identity,” a sentiment echoed by many throughout the four days.

This brings us to the topics of to blockchain and self-sovereign identity — both very hot and relatively new topics at the conference. Although it’s an emerging space, the promising future of the topics was mentioned often. Blockchain and self-sovereign identity (SSI) are seen as very promising solutions that could transform the ways in which consumers engage in managing their identity, an exciting promise in a world where identity and privacy have such value.

For ATB, it was a great opportunity to present with the attendees the work we’re doing to bring self-sovereign identity to Albertans. Our content was well received, but the conference reinforced many of the hurdles that we’ll need to overcome as leaders in the space for Alberta. Some of these items that were addressed included the classic “the chicken and the egg” problem (a term mentioned in three separate presentations), highlighting the challenge of how to increase the number of consumers using SSI while growing the business models that are dependent on them. Although the attendees were all excited about identity, it was acknowledged that identity might not be that exciting for consumers, and that we’ll need to figure out the proverbial ‘killer app’ in order to scale.

While the topics and panelists throughout the conference varied, the optimism around future state and willingness to get there was pervasive. Despite the uncertainty, it is clear from the work shown and ideas shared in Munich that we as humanity are headed in a positive direction and that good intentions, collaboration and hard work will prevail over uncertainty.

At ATB, we see that there are global leaders in the identity space that are working hard to solve many of the big challenges that lay ahead and that we can play a key role in building on this great work to truly bring a transformative experience to Albertans. Being a part of this global network of identity leaders is a key input to our success on this journey, which is why we’ll be working with others around the province to build out the uses to help make a meaningful impact on Albertans’ day-to-day lives.

To learn more about our work in Blockchain & Identity, visit www.atbalphabeta.com